Caw! Caw! What else can one say when getting woken up at some un-earthly hour of the morning by a serenading bunch of Crows? Yep! Them, and our dear little song loving little friend, our House Wren, are taking great delight in waking us up very early in the day. It reminds me of one of our trips to England, when, no matter where we were staying, we would be woken by the constant cooing of the Wood Pigeons, which are very much like our Rock Pigeons, but a lot more vocal! They didn’t just do it in the morning – it went on all day long, so at least here we have something to be thankful for.
The sudden change to hot weather has inspired more than just the Robins to use their water-bowl as a bathing facility, or just somewhere to sit and cool off, as can be seen by one of my pictures today, where a pair of Rock Pigeons are doing just that! It is not a common sight at all to see them actually get into the water, but they look perfectly at home in it.
Something on the theme of watery fluid type substances brings to mind the appearance of one of our Hairy Woodpeckers, looking like it had been immersed in something not too pleasant! The poor bird looked like it had fallen into an oily-like, or treacle-like substance. Its head feathers were all stuck up like a Mohawk haircut and its feathers were a discolored brown. It looked a real mess, but was still feeding avidly, despite this fact. It appeared to feed here for a day or so, but I haven’t seen it today, yet. Hopefully, it is OK, and that whatever it got into, or was sprayed with, has not led to its demise. We didn’t try to catch it, to try and clean it, since it was not showing any real signs of distress or disability in any way. My first thought was that it might have got into a honey source somehow, but that doesn’t sound very rational, as no flies, or other honey-loving insects, seemed to be “bugging” it, and it didn’t look sticky.
The Bluebirds have still not put in an appearance yet, at least not in our garden, but we have had two Eastern KIngbirds hanging around. Whether or not they will tarry is questionable, now that our swimming pool is uncovered and ready to go. Being “Flycatchers”, who normally dwell by rivers and streams, where they hunt for mosquitoes and other aerial insects, they had been swooping down and flying across the water that had collected over winter in our black pool cover. Presumably, there were already insects to be caught, despite the weather only just starting to warm up. Maybe our waterfall feature will keep them interested, once I have got round to re-installing the pump and adding water to it. If it doesn’t attract them, it will some of the other birds, who like to bathe in its shallow flowing water, where it gets the chance to form pools.
It has now become very pleasant, once again, to sit out in the garden and enjoy the birds and the sun. Hopefully, you are able to do the same, but be careful not to overdo the sun bit. Stay safe and well.
Cheers,
John Baldwin
